


Attack on the Empire

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Reckoning [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-30 13:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8534557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Reckoning has thrown in with Ahsoka to take down the Emperor. It's going to push plans off the schedule, but Ahsoka knows they have a limited amount of time to take the Sith out before he'll be unreachable again.





	

Ahsoka looked at the detailed layout of the Emperor's safehaven on Coruscant, then at the Senate chamber layout. She was debating two separate plans of attack. One borrowed heavily from the summation of a Separatist attack during the war on the Senate. The other was going to rely heavily on Reckoning's ability to bull through as much damage as possible, looking at the plans for the Emperor's haven.

"Captain, how many commandos do we have fit for duty among the ones we've rescued? Will Wolffe and Gregor help with this attack, if we ask them to be the distraction?" she asked, falling into Fulcrum's command aura so easily.

Rex frowned, considering his answer. "You're thinking of using both plans. Take the Senate hostage while the Emperor's not there, to cause panic and deflect attention, while we strike directly?" he asked, just to know for sure he was in her groove of planning.

"Not we, not on this one, Rex. I'll need you at the diversion site, assisting whatever soldiers we do pull together," Ahsoka told him, their eyes locking. "The Emperor is for myself and Reckoning to deal with." She could not let Rex be there, did not need the distraction… and didn't want him to see her die if that was what happened. "As you'll also probably need to coordinate our extraction."

If, Reckoning thought, oddly acerbically, there was anyone left to extract. But then... he had no intention of dying. The Senate he had no care for at all, but it would be entertaining to watch that chaos. He made a very quietly agreeing noise, and looked again at the plans for the Emperor's chambers. He would never have made it, as Vader, but despite all the Sith promises, all the temptations of power... he was stronger now, from her healing with the Living Force and his training with the same, than he had been since he had Anakin Skywalker's name. 

Rex and Ahsoka held the stare for long moments, then Rex drew a deep breath in. "Stunners, ray shields, a few concussives for effect… any Senators we should be aware of if an actual example needs to be made of the seriousness of it?"

"Keep it non-lethal, but you've got the list we've compiled of who was complicit in the rise of the Empire," Ahsoka said. 

"Of course. Trials for the _di'kut'e_ will keep the people happy while the hard work is done, after," Rex said. "I can get Wolffe, probably Gregor. For this, I'll get Wolffe to mobilize them all; it's our fight to the core, for what was done. At least we shouldn't be running into brothers much these days."

"No," Reckoning agreed quietly, "you should not... unless he has summoned the Fist to Coruscant, which I... do not think he would do." 

But if he had... 

Rex and Ahsoka both looked at him, almost identical flashes of surprise to shock to acceptance on their faces. "So, modified poppers too," Rex said calmly. "Unless they were de-chipped? We've had luck using the chip to knock out brothers in the past."

"They were not. Treated for the aging, years ago, yes, but de-chipped? No. It was... not permitted." Why were they so surprised? Vader had accepted only the best, and nothing Carida could turn out matched the _vod'e_ , even by half. 

"Our standard protocols won't work after this long, Old Boy," Ahsoka said in a low voice. "But we'll figure something out," she reassured, knowing Rex's mind was partly on his lost brothers. "For now, you need to figure out the best way to hold and defend the Senate as our distraction point."

"Yes sir."

Ahsoka looked at Reckoning then. "I think it's this path," she said, tracing an entry and movement line on the Emperor's haven, while Rex took over the Senate display to work out his ideas.

Reckoning moved to look a bit more closely, tracing it, thinking of the passages... and finally hummed agreement. "Yes. Of the possibilities, that one is the best." 

She took a slow breath, then another, before she closed her eyes and reached for the pool of the Force that centered inside her. This would possibly be her last fight, but it was also the most important.

Well, maybe second-most. Beating Vader had made this possible, after all.

The Force hummed within her, in agreement with the coming future, even if she could see nothing to tell her how it might go. She pushed a little, working her will? ...or was it the Daughter's?... into blinding the Sith's sight of most of what was coming. The assault on the Senate had to be glimpsed, at least partly, for this to work at all.

"Choose the day and time, Reckoning, when he is least likely to be in the Senate, and that body won't be terribly full. Then I start moving our assets." When she looked at him, it was with the face of a general, someone who had been forged by war, and would endure the costs, no matter what they were.

When had she grown up so much? Become someone simultaneously so different, and so much the same? 

The man Reckoning was now had had no hand in her maturing... but the two dead men who still somehow lurked in the corners of his mind and the echoes of his thoughts had. Skywalker's thoughts echoed pride and satisfaction, while Vader's snarled frustration for that he knew exactly how she had grown so strong -- contending against him. 

Reckoning considered the current Senate schedule (that, after all, was still a fairly accessible record, even without her contacts) to find a point that met those conditions. 

Fulcrum moved over to Rex, taking his data pad and encrypting certain codes he would need into it. As she did, she stood so that her thigh and hip were pressed to his. Bail would understand, she told herself, when she shifted so much of the command onto her Captain. 

If they lived through it, she had no doubt the command portion of the Alliance would rake her over the coals, but it would be worth it, even with the initial chaos, to have cut the head off the monster that was the Empire.

+++

The distant explosions and battery fire told her that the Rebels were encountering stiff resistance, but she was focused on her fight. Blasters had been used to get to this point, but now, with the end goal in sight, his guards killed or defected (and she wanted to know more about the small beings with their sharply dangerous knives), she drew her lightsabers.

Reckoning had taken the initial assault on the man ahead, while she dealt with the guards, and was holding up well against lightsaber and the occasional burst of lightning. As the Sith threw that lightning out again, Ahsoka threw herself forward, catching the power on her full lightsaber, actually holding it in the traditional way, though the shoto was in her customary reverse grip. She walked into the lightning, pushing her will and Force ability to make the Sith actually retreat three full steps.

Reckoning had been stunned when the Noghri responded to his presence not with an assault, but with deep sniffs and sudden turns on the Imperial Guards. He had not expected that they would still have enough of their own minds to do what they chose, and not what the Emperor demanded -- but then, the Emperor had always been disdainful of them, ignoring them almost completely. 

That was only one of Palpatine's many mistakes, but it might, Force willing, be the one that helped bring him down. His new lightsaber was kept more than busy with the fight. The Emperor was a frightening opponent at any time, but Reckoning was better than he had been and that, at the moment, gave him an edge. If only a slight one. He was emphatically not listening to the words spit from that wrinkled mouth, well aware of his own weakness to distraction... and then Palpatine was actually forced back, off-balance, and Reckoning disengaged only to go after his wrist. 

The Sith had to break off the lightning attack to focus on his former apprentice, barely avoiding that disabling blow. That gave Ahsoka an opening, as she twirled the longer lightsaber to its proper place in her hand, while lunging and slashing with the shoto. Palpatine dodged the blow that would have cut into his thigh, before pain flared along his free arm when the longer blade scored a shallow cut through his robe into the muscle of the forearm. 

His eyes narrowed as he recognized the deadly situation he was truly in, deflecting a thrown blade from one of his treacherous assassins. With little warning, he used the weakened hand to draw a second lightsaber to himself, drawing on the Force heavily to leap out of the closing jaws of his death in the form of these two fighters, going over and stabbing back to score a blow on the unfamiliar armor…

… to have it slide off, as it was properly made in the manner of Mandalorian armor, able to deflect glancing blows from a lightsaber. Ahsoka whirled to press the attack again, sinking further into the battle meditation that let her work with Reckoning seamlessly.

Reckoning felt the touch of her mind, matched her -- a moment's fear at the second lightsaber in Palpatine's hand flashed through him -- and the fight became, again, something too fast for thought and too intense give anything but all of himself to. 

A sudden change in the fight came as two Noghri buried knives in the backs of Palpatine's knees allowing Reckoning and Ahsoka to truly strike. The next thing Reckoning knew, after the feeling of flesh parting under his blade, was a blinding explosion of searing blue energy and hate that threw him into the wall hard enough that he nearly blacked out.

Ahsoka was caught as off-guard, and was wearing far lighter armor. She slammed into the wall, hard enough to do blunt trauma to the central lek, and rock her skull back into the masonry. Her whistle-cry of pain was cut short as violent nausea won over her own body's attempt to pass out, and she fell forward heavily, retching from the pain.

The Noghri had also been thrown back, but one managed to hold his ground and quickly came to stand guard over Reckoning, loyal and uncertain if the unknown warrior was an ally of convenience or truth.

Reckoning managed to convince his body to stay conscious, looked for Ahsoka, and frowned slightly. "...get her," he told them, struggling to get back up, "we go." 

The one still mostly unhurt moved to obey, as the rest gathered themselves and their dead to get free of this place. Their true Lord had given the command, and they would obey.

Ahsoka tried not to react to strange hands on her, but she tensed despite herself, all of her senses a little off because of that last injury. Sometimes, she wondered what the Huntress had been thinking by guiding their evolution that way.

"Can walk," she managed to slur out. "Just need balance help," she added, as she made it to her feet, and the Noghri slid under her open arm to do that.

"It is all right, Ahsoka," Reckoning told her at the feel of that tension surging, the almost ringing in the connection between them, "they are strong." 

The Emperor was dead; Reckoning had done what he wished... now he had to see to these people who trusted him. There was something wrong in that their world had still not recovered... but right now, they needed to escape. 

"And brave," Ahsoka praised, forcing herself to think, to do as she was supposed to, and she reached up and across her aide to hit the code for extraction. She couldn't much hear anything right now, too overwhelmed by the impact on her lek to truly focus, but maybe the explosions were more distant?

The Noghri aiding her did not directly respond to her, but he had straightened in pride at his Lord's praise. 

"You," Reckoning told her dryly, "have no idea. Let's go."

+++

As soon as the extraction order hit his comm, Rex had given the wave-off to the assault teams and relayed it to the limited air support they had. He then sent off a signal to the key personnel controlling the Rebel Fleet, so they knew it was their turn.

Extraction meant the Emperor was dead. It would be up to Bail (who was playing hostage with such a mix of outrage and outward deference that Rex had to give the man due credit) and his allies to try and wrangle political control, while the Rebel Forces took on the Imperial Fleet while it was disorganized.

It did not take him long, even with one arm tied across his body from where his shoulder had been wrenched nearly out of its socket, to get to the arranged point. He did not like the color of his wife's skin and lekku, but she was walking. The beings with them weren't like anything he'd ever seen, but it was a big galaxy. One of them helping support Ahsoka was enough reason to tolerate them aboard, and then he was getting them the hell off this planet.

He hoped the virus was still scrambling the tracking systems, both planetary and Fleet, as he proved he had paid attention to his piloting lessons over the years, even if he preferred not to.

Reckoning did not breathe easily, or even steadily, until they were all safe in the ship and Rex had them in hyperspace. Then he moved to Ahsoka, removing part of the armor over his bicep. "Here," he murmured, "take hold of me." 

It was much easier to use the living Force when there was skin contact, and as he no longer had his hands... 

She did so without hesitation, leaning into him as he offered her help. "Usually better about turning my head to prevent that kind of blow," she grumbled, annoyed by the fact they had gotten away from the fight with fairly minor injuries… and this had happened.

The Noghri that had aided her took note of the weakness, filing it away in case this warrior proved dangerous to their lord, but he was fascinated to see the armor come off without being in a secure environment. His nose was correct; their savior was in stronger condition than from before he had gone missing!

"Usually, there's not a violently-exploding Sith Lord flinging us around like rag-dolls," Reckoning replied, settling in to push the healing he could now do again -- better than he had before -- into her. The 'us' had slipped from his lips so naturally... and it was nothing he wanted to retract. 

He noticed the Noghri's attention and hissed a quiet agreement through the vocalizer's translation ability. 

"At least he's dead," Ahsoka said, closing her eyes as the healing energies helped her stabilize her senses and balance. "Thank you, Reckoning. And I think we did pretty well back there. Especially with the help of your allies." She opened her eyes back to give a small smile to the one that had helped her.

That one gave an answering nod, even as he was planning how to spread the good news through all the people that served off their world. All the People needed to know that their Lord was stronger, and no longer tied to the unnatural one.

"As though you did not do far more for me?" Reckoning replied, knowing the Noghri heard everything around them. 

So the warrior was part of their lord's return to health and strength? The Noghri would have to be careful to defend her, so long as she remained on his side.

"No debt," she hissed softly, insisting on making that clear. "This is not a tit-for-tat thing, Reckoning. We started with a clean slate. I prefer it that way between us."

Would he go his own way now? Would he remain with her, even though she wasn't even certain what role she would now move to for the Rebellion? She hoped he did, if only to try and give him an anchor against the darkness.

"Shh. I know, Ahsoka. It -- you are welcome, then." The words were uncomfortable, but if she was going to be stubborn... 

She smiled up at him, then took a deep breath. "Anything get through that armor that needs bandaging?" she asked, looking for any sign of it. "And how do I best help your people?" she asked the warrior with them.

"We see to our own," the Noghri told her in better Basic than some of them managed.

"Not that I want to deal with at the moment, no," Reckoning replied. The lightning burns inside... were for later. 

He looked at the Noghri beside them, and considered asking him to reconsider. "This is Ahsoka Tano... Krysshanik, yes?" 

The Lord recalled his name! "Yes, Lord Va --" scent changed sudden and unpleasant, on both of them, and he tilted his head as he asked "Savior?" in his own tongue instead. 

"That other name was given me by the one that has died," Reckoning rumbled, staying in the same tongue, "I do not wish to keep it. He deceived me, and I am concerned that there will be further deceptions found." 

"Yes, my lord," Krysshanik said firmly. "I will tell the others, and word will spread through the clans," he added. Ahsoka raised an eyemark at the sounds; it was nothing like any language she knew. The Noghri then turned and accorded her a short bow. "Greetings, Lady Tano," he said in Basic.

"Greetings, and my gratitude to you and your people," Ahsoka said more formally. She then looked at Reckoning. "I need to actually check on Rex." She got to her feet fully, then headed for the cockpit.

Reckoning flicked his fingers in agreement -- she should, it was very true -- and settled down to rest... and work on the burns with the Force. 

+++

Rex was managing the next of the hyperspace transfers when he knew she was coming -- some very faint sound, or scent, or just her presence, he knew -- and he shifted the seat to face the corridor as she appeared. She didn't, he noticed, look nearly as bad. 

"Let me look at that arm," she said softly, even as she searched him over for other injuries, worried, as always, for his well-being. She came close and started getting the armor off the arm, leaving him free to continue with his good arm. Thankfully Arseven was with him, bypassing duties normally handled by the copilot. "Thank you, for managing the other fight, and being there to get us," she added. "I couldn't do half of this without you, Rex."

"Ahsoka," he said softly, even as he let her work, "what in the names of the stars else could I have possibly done? He -- 

"He's truly dead?" She would never have left Coruscant without his death, he _knew_ that... but parts of him that had raged and screamed and hated for so many years needed to hear his wife tell him it was so. 

"He is, my love," Ahsoka said softly. " _Di'kut_ had the gall to explode on death. That's how I got so injured; didn't twist to protect the lek fast enough. But Reckoning got that sorted for me.

"The allies seem to look to him; they turned on the Emperor once they identified him, somehow. And honestly, that made all the difference for us."

Rex shuddered, full-body, at the confirmation, did _not_ let the noise that wanted to escape cross his lips from jarring his shoulder like that, and tried to just breathe. That kriffing monster, finally dead. Fives and every other brother finally, _finally_ avenged... 

The news about the others that had come aboard, that was interesting, and enough to pull his focus back, at least somewhat. "...you don't know how they identified him?" 

"No. I don't think he was expecting them to be able to work with him, given that they were apparently serving the Sith," she said, sighing softly. "They turned, though, and helped me get rid of the other guards while Reckoning went straight into the main fight. Their help let me get into faster, trading out my blasters for my lightsabers. And they managed to injure him critically enough to give us the chance to end it."

She finished manipulating the arm into its proper position, then focused her healing on the joint. She didn't want it to leave lingering issues.

"...huh. No, he certainly didn't mention them -- and as driven as he was to see the Emperor dead, I think he would have mentioned allies on the inside," Rex said thoughtfully, wondering what minuscule signal or clue his Huntress of a wife had somehow not caught. But it didn't really matter, in the scheme of things. "I guess we should be grateful for them, then." 

"I am." She leaned down and kissed him on his cheek, just above the beard. "Want me to handle the rest of the piloting, or am I clear to go rest, Captain?" she asked him, mischief in her voice now that the fighting was done. They were supposed to be heading back to her hidey-hole, the prearranged place for them to recover from any injuries they took, if they survived.

"Go rest, Commander; Arseven and I have got this," Rex replied, pressing up to follow that kiss for a moment. She met his lips this time, giving him plenty of reminders on how much she loved him in that kiss before she left him to the piloting and went to get clean and into their berth. 

+++

Arseven chirped that Ahsoka had an imperative incoming comm, and Ahsoka sighed. She didn't bother to do more than shift herself on her pillow to be in front of the comm suite, getting Arseven to encrypt and patch through from her ship. She had wound up sleeping more of the hyperspace jump back than either of the other two, worrying Rex to no end. That in turn had led to her promising to meditate, eat, and rest for longer than the Rebellion probably would have preferred.

The comm opened to show three figures, their features blurred out, but she knew it was Mon, Bail, and Sato. She hadn't told Reckoning to leave as he had, she believed, opted to stay and work with her further, even if she suspected it was to settle old scores and possibly liberate the 501st.

"Fulcrum, you have not been in contact since your precipitous actions catapulted us well ahead of schedule," Sato began.

"That's because I have had two fights to the death against Sith, and former Sith, warriors in the last several months. Force users do need to recharge, even if it is less frequently than an astromech." She was not having with being called on the carpet over doing what was necessary. "As I explained in the original briefing for Operation Headshot, the window to work in was growing increasingly smaller."

"Your briefing, Fulcrum, left out most of the details of your operation," Organa said. "There was much panic caused by the assault on Coruscant."

"Which, if I recall from my briefing, was the goal, in order to disrupt standard Imperial procedures long enough to get several prisoners out and provide cover. As well as to lay the ground for a propaganda blitz from our side of things." Seriously, they had specifically asked her into their little cabal to access her understanding of the Force **and** military procedure. What were they thinking now?

"All the prisoners that were on the list were liberated, Fulcrum," Mon said, employing a smoother, calmer tone. That soothed some of Ahsoka's ragged edges at this whole farce.

"And, barring any hidden apprentices, the Sith are dead," Ahsoka told them. "There will still be Force users and Dark Acolytes to identify and find. That is likely going to be my mission going forward. You have assembled a solid military staff since I first joined on to handle your Rebellion. I don't do politics. So… why are you really comming me?"

"You left us with a nasty bundle of messes to clean up; we were not truly prepared to try and take on the Fleet at this time!" Sato told her. She focused on his image, face going flat and resolute.

"In the briefing, I stated that now was the prime opportunity to sow discontent and get the Imperials to turn on one another as they try to fill the power vacuum. If you do not have the spine to do that, I suggest you find someone who does. This has not been a pretty war since the first blows were struck when I was still a child on Shili!

"Psychology, bribery, and careful misinformation is the key here. Your adherence to more noble methods will waste the lives of those men and women who were on Coruscant, as well as all the deaths that led to that point!" she told them all in a hard, commanding voice. "You must make the vipers turn on one another to destroy the nest!"

Reckoning watched her dealing with them, more than slightly pleased to hear the familiar pitches in their voices and observe the only partially blurred outlines that told him his instincts about the leadership of the Rebellion had been correct all along. All of _her_ friends and allies... and now he could see that she had been right. As seemed to be so often the case, the women in his life were smarter than he was. 

The three were quiet, then Mon spoke, as she seemed to be the one who was designated as the calm one. "We are having a hard time adapting to such tactics, Fulcrum, but it is advice we were given from other allies."

"Then follow it, please. For the sake of all those who have paid with their lives, don't waste the effort my ally and I made to get rid of the Sith." Ahsoka would not be available to them if they did so. "If intel finds a Quizzie or something else Force-related, contact me. Otherwise, I intend to try and find more training."

"I think--"

She cut Sato off. "Frequently. Now apply your tactical gifts to the situation I left you; I did the heavy lifting already. May the Force watch over you all." She reached out and cut the comm then.

"I was just starting to contemplate telling them to do some real work for once in their lives," Reckoning said, his voice deliberately dry as he contemplated the reaction that might have gotten, "probably best you cut him off." 

"He's a good man, solid leader, but too prone to that stiff-necked honor that got a lot of good brothers killed by Jedi who never adapted to the war," Ahsoka said, before sprawling on the floor instead of remaining upright. "I swear I have no idea how that many idealists managed to keep themselves alive."

"Neither do I," Reckoning replied flatly, his fingers flicking from side to side in an agreeing gesture. "Other than that they had the good sense to recruit you." 

"They really didn't have much choice on that," Ahsoka said. "Only damned Force user they could find at first. Finding Kanan and his apprentice came later." She looked up at him with a half-smile. "But thank you for the compliment."

Rex chose to come in then, and looked at his mate sprawled on the floor. "Politicians have a go at you?"

"And their military commander," Ahsoka agreed, before she rolled over to her stomach as Rex sat beside her, tapping her hip. Her eyes closed as he began rubbing her back with his good hand, still letting the other arm rest most of the time.

"Still not sure how you got things done half the time. They should have given command to Rieekan," Rex grumbled.

"That would have given Alderaan too much control of things for some people, and besides, Sato was too closely involved with my actions by that point to deny he had the expertise for that strike. Rieekan will probably be getting full command if they consolidate the cells." Ahsoka said it absently before she looked at Reckoning. "Pretty sure you figured out at least two of those three on your own. And if you run close to me, you'll learn who is in the Rebellion bit by bit. I was one of the few entrusted to know all of Command… and had steadfastly refused to leave the field to be part of it."

"Organa, Mon Mothma, Sato, yes," Reckoning replied steadily, watching the easy way Skywalker's Captain touched the woman that was no longer a student, but his own salvation, and her equally obvious pleasure in it... it was good, he told himself firmly, that they had that. 

"I find I care little for who they are, beyond what trouble they might cause for me and the Noghri," he added. 

"I promised I'd take care of your allies," Ahsoka said. "Not all my contacts are Rebellion. And no, I don't mean my Dathomiri people either," she said quickly, aware Rex was frowning at her already. "I liberated a few scientists off Bandomeer, as well as some of the AgriCorps members there not long after the Purge. 

"I think they'd be the right people to take the Honoghr issue to, and it would probably be a better situation for them than the Rim world I placed them on. The last time I went through, one of the cultivators was snarling at the ground for refusing to cooperate with her." Ahsoka snickered at the memory.

Reckoning hummed thoughtfully, watching her relax into snickering, and considered that. It... sounded viable. As soon as they chased away any Imperial presence above it, at least. "That sounds suitable... and I had no doubt you would." 

"As for you, Reckoning," Ahsoka said, eyes slowly fluttering closed under Rex's continued petting. "They would have to go through me, first."

Rex glanced over to see how that set on the man that was neither his general nor the monster of their nightmares, but a man shaped by both sets of experiences into someone making a new way for himself.

"...you did say you would not leave me," Reckoning murmured after several moments of quiet that was mostly from his confusion at her. Baffling, _baffling_ woman... but he would remain with her as long as it was necessary (longer) because she did not try to hold him. 

That set Rex's nerves a little more at ease; it was also so very what his _riduur_ would do. Deeply, intensely loyal woman that she was, if she'd had reason to hope, she would not have let him fall away from her again.

" _Aliit_ ," Ahsoka said with lazy contentment, as her husband rubbed her back, making her sleepy with joy.

"Stubborn woman," Reckoning muttered, though he could do nothing but smile at the sight of her joy, written in her lekku's color and curl and the curve of her body. 

She ghosted mischievous happiness at him along the small link she had forged during the healing process, one that had been convenient to leave in place… but he could feel the offer of friendship and caring that came with the mischief. 

"Sleep, Ahsoka," Rex said softly, moving his rubbing a little higher.

"Bossy captain," she murmured but was fast on her way to being out. The man looked both amused at her and pleased with himself for having managed to manipulate her into sleep. Even with as much as she had been getting lately, he knew it was only barely making a dent in years of deprivation. Having not just him, but another warrior on hand that she trusted made the difference. 

He could remember that look on a much younger face, all smug, and he found the memory not displeasing, and its current appearance entertaining. 

Rex gave him a nod, then carefully lowered himself to where his head rested in the curve of Ahsoka's back, closing his eyes. "Might as well rest or meditate; she wakes from this nap, she's going to be her hyper self again," Rex warned Reckoning.

"No doubt of that," Reckoning agreed, and rearranged himself somewhat to take advantage of the quiet there was going to be for a little while.


End file.
